Fairways and Faraway Places
Hello, I’m Laurie Canter and it’s massively exciting for me to have joined the BTCI Team as a sporting ambassador.
Through this blog, I hope to give you guys an insight into my life in professional golf with a few light hearted tales of my travels and some insights into my preparation and training.
I’ve been a professional golfer since 2011, and travel has become a big part of my life, but I don’t remember a busier period than the beginning of this year. Since January, I have been to 6 continents and travelled 110,000 kilometres; which is almost the equivalent of flying around the world 3 times. I use a sleep tracker as part of my recovery, and needless to say, these time shifts have really tested my ability to get my sleep in!
As fun and exciting as travel can be, when competing and playing golf, we professional golfers are so routine based in our preparation that often we don’t get the opportunity to see and explore as much of the countries and cultures we visit as we’d like.
However, this year, I’ve had 2 opportunities to do that a little more in very different places. The first was in Las Vegas, where the tournament accommodation for the week was in the middle of the Las Vegas Strip at the Paris Hotel. My wife (and manager), Anna, joined me for the week and booked us in to see a couple of shows, including Adele at Caesars Palace. I have to admit, I was a lukewarm Adele fan before the show but, after seeing her live in concert, I am a convert. It was incredible to witness one person perform with that much stage presence. I’d fully recommend going to see her live if you ever get the chance!
On the other end of the spectrum, a month later, I was invited by the Hero Motor Company to be a sponsors invitation for the Indian Open in Delhi. I’ve had opportunities to play in India before but, full disclosure, I’d never planned it in to my schedule as the tales of the infamous “Delhi Belly” and the sweltering subcontinental weather had made me think twice!
This year, I am so glad I went.
I landed on the Monday morning of the tournament week and was picked up by my host Vijay for the week. He invited me to experience the ‘Holi’ festival, which marks the beginning of Spring, with his friends, family and colleagues. Instead of the usual greetings of handshakes and cap tilts that we golfers are accustomed to, I was quickly covered in paint and had buckets of water thrown over me as part of the celebrations! India truly is a beautiful place and with an amazing culture, and I loved experiencing some of Delhi.
On the course in India, I finished in the middle of the pack, but did have one of the strangest rounds of my career so far. After a terrible first 10 holes where I was 6 over par, I had a run of 6 birdies and an eagle in my final 8 holes to shoot 29 on the back 9 and return a 2 under par 70. Anyone who regularly plays golf, will realise how elusive the game is at times. You can feel miles away from your best and then, inexplicably, one shot can spark your round into life. Rounds like I had in India are good reminders of that for me too.
I’m excited to start my DP World Tour season next week in Belgium. In and amongst the travel, I’ve been working hard on a few areas of my game and feel I’ve laid the foundation for a great summer on the course. As part of that preparation, I had the pleasure of hosting Baker Tilly Channel Islands Director Sandy Cameron, and two of the firms clients at my home course, Queenwood, in Surrey in early April. Sandy gave me lots to think about when he outdrove by 25 yards early on in the round. Needless to say, I got off the course and headed straight to the gym… I’ll get you next time Sandy!!
I look forward to meeting more of the BTCI team in the summer and hope a few of you are able to take advantage of some better weather now we are into spring and get out onto the golf course.
Laurie